The 100 Biggest Stars In Silicon Valley

Updated 10:34 am, Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Facebook went public, Marissa Mayer joined Yahoo, laws changed to foster new industries, enterprise startups got hot, and billion-dollar companies were formed and acquired.

Now, after months of research, debate, and more research, we're happy to present the latest installment of the Silicon Valley 100, Business Insider's authoritative compilation of the people who did the coolest things in Silicon Valley this year. That means people who:

backed promising companies and saw big exits;

were star executives;

created new, interesting things;

changed entire industries;

and made industry-defining acquisitions or took their companies public.

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In sum, these people aren't riding on old reputations. All of them did something amazing in 2012, and they won big. A big shout-out to everyone named in the list: You earned it. And if you feel that we missed someone? Tell us—we're not all-knowing, and we love telling stories about amazing people.